Wisdom & the Human Body

SCRIPTURE: So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 NIV

THOUGHT: To the worldly wise, there’s just no percentage in being made in God’s image. You can’t really market it, you can’t monetize it, and it happens from birth before you’re even aware or in control of it. Frankly, it’s hard to come up with a better idea. Of course, that doesn’t stop people from trying. We are currently being sold lots of upgrades to something more superior than being human — made in the image of God.

I see people with technology rigged to their heads and arms everywhere. It’s swimming in our bodies from bio-engineered food to mRNA, and there are plans to push further, such as eating something to acquire a vaccine, medical interventions delivered by contagion rather than informed consent, babies born in pods, and implanted technology such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a chip inserted into the brain.

Slowly there’s a change taking place in the way we view our humanity.

“You’re now assumed to be sub-optimally functional until you get [some] intervention,” says Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, who recently authored, The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State. “The technocratic paradigm for medicine [versus the Hippocratic] sees you a just a collection of physiological processes that we can tinker with and that we can upgrade and that we can improve and that we can enhance, potentially indefinitely.”

There is money to be made, don’t you see. Humans are just computers that need upgrades.

This is the leading edge of transhumanism, which Britannica defines as a “philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emerging technologies – such as genetic engineering, cryonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanotechnology – to augment human capabilities and improve the human condition.” The far edge is achieving immortality through technology, something every transhumanist already has, but not to their liking, apparently.

But what does wisdom say? Where is the ancient path that leads to rest for the soul (see yesterday’s devo)?

The great arc of Scripture confirms that God made us in his image, glorious, with purpose and eternal spirits. Paul writes, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20 NIV).” He tells the Colossians, “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col. 3:10).” Jesus tells his friends, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (Jn. 14:3 NIV).

God’s renewal process isn’t something we add to our bodies to fix things (think C.S. Lewis quote from Wednesday’s devo: “For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.”).

God’s renewal process is about humans figuring out we are fearfully and wonderfully made clay pots, and when we’re weak, God is strong. He may use science and technology to help us, but science and technology will never be God.

PRAYER: Oh God, to be really wise in your ways, I need discernment. Help me thread between transhumanistic desire and longing to be a human fully alive, made in your image and likeness.